LPG Consumption Overshadows Kerosene Scarcity At Tank Farms

Posted: 04 June, 2018 05:01:15schedule

Chairman Senate Committee on Petroleum (upstream) Senator Omotayo Donald Alasoadura (left) and the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru when the committee paid an oversight visit to the NNPC headquarters in Abuja last week.

• Stakeholders say FG successfully discouraged the use of kerosene

Fresh indications have emerged that there is scarcity of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) also known as kerosene at tank farms in Lagos, this is even as operators have commended the Federal Government for eradicating the use of kerosene with sensitization on the need for Nigerian citizens to embrace use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) also known as cooking gas.

Sources in the downstream sector confirmed to Shipping Position Daily last week that kerosene, a popular cooking fuel in most low and middle class homes, is currently scarce in the market, but nobody seems to have noticed this. The stakeholders noted that in the past, kerosene scarcity used to be one of the national energy crises that bothered the government, but it is not so now.

Speaking with Shipping Position Daily, Chris Iyasere, a downstream operator at Ibeto Tank Farm, a leading DPK and Diesel depot at the Ibru complex in Lagos said that there has not been any importation of kerosene since December 2017. A visit to other depots around Ibafon area of Apapa showed that none was having the product for a long time.

Iyasere said that, “for some time now we have not had the kerosene, the last consignment we had was sometime in December 2017.

Kerosene is actually scarce, but you cannot hear about it in town because it is a policy of the government that the use of kerosene be discouraged so that people can patronize gas” he said.

Also speaking on why Nigerians are not feeling the scarcity of kerosene, Chief Operating Officer of Matrix Energy Limited, Mr. Loqman Salam-Alada, said the increase in the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in place of kerosene in most homes has reduced the use of kerosene.

He said the visibility of LPG against those of other hydrocarbon fuels, would continue to increase because of the huge edge it has over others.

However, he disclosed that Matrix Energy had been investing huge resources to make the product more readily available in all parts of the country, especially for the people of the South south/South east and some parts of the South west.

According to him, since the company opened its gas depot in Warri, Delta State last December, it has circulated more than 30,000 metric tons of LPG to various parts of the country.

He said “one significance of this development is that the increase in the supply and consumption of LPG has gradually phased the consumption of DPK out because there’s no DPK in the market and the impact of the scarcity is not felt and this is because more and more people are now moving away from using kerosene and turning to the use of cooking gas. This will continue because Nigeria’s consumption of LPG will continue to increase”.

Salam-Alada however projected that the product would become more important in a matter of few years as many who are consumers of other petroleum products, like premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, as well as the automotive gas oil (AGO), also known as diesel, will gradually be turning to the LPG because of its financial and environmental advantages over them.

“We also project that as time goes on, many people will turn to the use of LPG for power generation. It’s part of reducing domestic logistics in the homes. Another point to consider is the fact that LPG is more environmental friendly, it’s greener, so in the long run, when you consider the effect on the environment, it is cheaper than other hydrocarbon fuels, besides giving you more energy supply,” he said.